The number of prosecuted and sentenced cases refers to all hate crime cases for which article 82A of the Penal Code (Greece's main hate crime provision) is invoked by the Public Prosecutor or ruled on by the court, respectively.
Incidents presented in this section may involve more than one criminal offence and more than one bias motivation. Verbal insults and discrimination (denial of service) offences, included in the overall police figure above, are excluded from the breakdown below.
In 2024, a consultation process took place with civil society organizations for on the drafting of the 2nd National Action Plan against Racism and Intolerance (2025–2027). Capacity-building activities were held for public officials and the National Council to support the drafting of this Action Plan.
This category consists of 28 homophobic and 21 transphobic crimes.
ODIHR recognizes Greece's efforts to develop the 2nd National Action Plan against Racism and Intolerance (2025–2027). However, based on the available information, it observes that Greece has not made hate crime data public. In addition, ODIHR observes that Greece would benefit from building the capacity of prosecutors and judges to address hate crime.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to making reliable and detailed data and statistics on hate crimes public. Participating States also committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Greece in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance, as well as further resources and capacity-building assistance for the prosecution and judiciary.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in Greece from the following civil society organizations:
- Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS)
- European Center of Democracy Development (ECDD)
- Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN)
- European Roma Rights Center (ERRC)
- I Have Rights e.V
- International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF)
- European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
All incidents submitted by the above organizations have been analysed by ODIHR. Those that are broadly considered to be hate crimes within the OSCE definition (criminal offence committed with a bias motive) are listed in the tables below according to the bias motivation category. Some incidents have multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
ODIHR’s insightsFor 2024, ODIHR received reports of 87 incidents that took place in Greece in the following bias motivation categories: anti-Christian, anti-LGBTI, anti-Muslim, anti-Roma, anti-Semitic, and racist and xenophobic hate incidents. In addition, several hate incidents involved multiple bias motives, such as anti-Roma and gender-based, gender-based and anti-LGBTI, racist and xenophobic and anti-Muslim, and racist and xenophobic and anti-Semitic. ODIHR observes that the majority of incidents reported with a racist and xenophobic bias motivation were violent physical assaults and were perpetrated against migrants and asylum seekers, with unaccompanied minors representing a significant number of victims in such cases. Several of these incidents were also reported to have been committed by law enforcement officers. Of the anti-Christian incidents reported to ODIHR, most involved damage to community property. Several anti-LGBTI threats were observed online when the victims posted on social media in support of an LGBTI-rights march. Several anti-Roma physical assaults were reported to have been perpetrated by law enforcement officers during a police raid on a Roma camp. A series of anti-Semitic incidents were reported involving arson attacks targeting synagogues and businesses, as well as threats to the community via phone and email. Additionally, ODIHR observes that several anti-Semitic incidents also had a racist and xenophobic bias, when community spaces were vandalized with anti-Semitic and xenophobic graffiti written in Hebrew. It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting on Greece relating to disability hate incidents. Therefore, there are likely to be gaps in the information reported here. |
Please note that incidents reported here are based on voluntary civil society submissions and as such might not reflect the actual number of incidents or the most targeted communities in Greece.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents in Greece to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from Greece click here and search by year and country.